Coming to DVD this Tuesday, August 23: POM WONDERFUL PRESENTS THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER SOLD
Morgan Spurlock’s latest film – a self-reflexive look at product placement – had its world premiere at this year’s Sundance, and made the rounds at numerous notable events since, including SXSW and Hot Docs, before its theatrical release this Spring.
I profiled the film before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Releases, Sundance
Coming to Tribeca Films On Demand next Thursday, August 25: SHUT UP LITTLE MAN! AN AUDIO MISADVENTURE
Matthew Bate premiered his investigation into a bizarre pre-Internet viral phenomenon at this year’s Sundance, and went on to twenty additional fests, including True/False, New Directors/New Films, Seattle, Sheffield, Frameline, and Outfest. Tribeca Film is releasing the film on demand now, with simultaneous theatrical engagements in San Francisco and Berkeley, expanding out to NY, LA, and elsewhere in September.
My pre-Sundance profile may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Releases, Sundance
Dear Documentary Filmmakers: Are all of these anecdotes leading anywhere? Don’t let your interviewee sidetrack you.
While I touched upon this issue in an earlier DDF about tributes, that post was more concerned with the overall topic of your film. For the purposes of this entry, I’m going to take a leap of faith and assume that at least you have already identified a potentially compelling story you are attempting to tell, and are not just filming a vague appreciation of your uncle or guidance counselor.
Filed under Dear Documentary Filmmakers, Documentary, Film
Coming to NYC’s Anthology Film Archives‘ NewFilmmakers series tomorrow, Wednesday, August 17: THE BATTLE OF PUSSY WILLOW CREEK
Wendy Jo Cohen’s fictional documentary had its world premiere at last year’s Atlanta Film Festival. In my coverage of Atlanta for indieWIRE, I wrote:
While initially frankly concerned that PUSSY WILLOW would be another in a long line of unsuccessful mockumentaries, I was pleasantly proven wrong by NY-based filmmaker Wendy Jo Cohen’s smart film. The very term “mockumentary” is rather inappropriate for the film, which treats its themes and its subjects affectionately. Lampooning the style and format of Ken Burns’ PBS series THE CIVIL WAR, PUSSY WILLOW reveals the “true” story of a critical Civil War battle fought by an opium-addicted gay colonel, his aged Chinese advisor, a nerdy freed slave/engineer, and a one-armed cross-dressing teenage prostitute against a secret battalion of British forces, with the fate of Washington DC at stake. An obvious labor of love, the film successfully comments on gays in the military, racism, xenophobia, and sexism in a sly, entertaining manner throughout. Programmers should take note – a variety of audiences will respond extremely well to this film, and it bears serious consideration.
Note: I debated whether or not to post about this film, because, up until now, I have strictly focused on non-fiction work. I’m bending my own rules a bit because, in many ways, director Wendy Jo Cohen’s (aka “Grace A Burns”) loving send up offers a good illustration of documentary conventions actual non-fiction projects may want to avoid. Here, they’re funny; used in “real” docs, they’ll probably engender a “Dear Documentary Filmmakers” post or two.
Filed under Dear Documentary Filmmakers, Film, Recommendations
Coming to theatres (as part of the International Documentary Association’s Oscar-qualifying DocuWeeks) this Friday, August 19 (NYC’s IFC Center) and on Friday, September 2 (LA’s Laemmle Sunset 5): BEING ELMO: A PUPPETEER’S JOURNEY
Constance Marks’ portrait of the man who brings everyone’s favorite Muppet to life debuted at Sundance this year, where it claimed a Special Jury Prize. It has transformed audiences back into five-year-olds at notable festivals since, including SXSW, Full Frame, Silverdocs, Dallas, Hot Docs, Nantucket, and Traverse City, picking up additional awards at the latter two.
I wrote about the doc before its world premiere here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to theatres (as part of the International Documentary Association’s Oscar-qualifying DocuWeeks) this Friday, August 19 (NYC’s IFC Center) and on Friday, September 2 (LA’s Laemmle Sunset 5): HELL AND BACK AGAIN
Danfung Dennis’ harrowing documentary feature debut about a soldier’s return home from Afghanistan premiered at Sundance earlier this year, where it claimed both the World Cinema Documentary Grand Jury Award and the World Cinema Documentary Cinematography Award. Since January, it has screened at notable festivals including Full Frame, Hot Docs, Sheffield, Edinburgh, and Silverdocs.
My pre-Sundance profile of the film may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to NYC’s Maysles Cinema for a week run starting today, August 15: SUMMER PASTURE
Lynn True and Nelson Walker’s intimate observational portrait of a Tibetan family made its world premiere at Full Frame last year, where it garnered a special mention from the jury. It’s gone on to play at festivals around the world, and was nominated for both a Gotham and Independent Spirit award.
Locho and Yama are a young nomad couple in the Kham region of Tibet in China’s Sichuan province. Together with their baby daughter and with other members of their family nearby, they’ve come to the grasslands to tend to their yaks and make cheese and butter during the summer to last them through the upcoming winter. Even as they follow the traditional ways, the couple confess their desires that their daughter become literate, which may lead them to abandon their nomadic ways to facilitate her education. Locho speculates on the encroachment of modernization, which he believes will radically transform their summer pastures with buildings and roads, perhaps hastening a change to their way of life. Locho and Yama are fantastic documentary subjects – surprisingly open and expressive, they reveal intimate details about their relationship and seem perfectly at ease in front of the camera as they tend to their chores. The film is expertly lensed, capturing the beauty of their pasture lands, and providing the audience with a real sense of what the family may have to sacrifice in order to survive in the modern world.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to NYC’s Museum of the Moving Image as part of its Errol Morris’ America series this weekend, August 13-14: THE FOG OF WAR
Morris’ spellbinding interview with former US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara had its debut at Cannes in 2003, followed by slots in prime fall festivals including Telluride, Toronto, and New York. Sony Pictures Classics released the film theatrically at the end of the year. It won the Academy Award for Best Documentary the following year, as well as numerous film critics awards and an Independent Spirit award.
McNamara, at the age of 85, discusses with surprising candor his involvement in pivotal events of the 20th century, from World War II to the Cuban Missile Crisis to the Vietnam War. Along the way, the film borrows from McNamara’s writings on what went wrong in the latter conflict to offer eleven lessons of war that should be applied to international relations – from empathy with one’s enemy to proportionality in retaliation. Beyond the cogent analysis of his extensive interview, Morris supplements the film with extensive archival footage from the various international conflicts and incidents discussed, as well as audio recordings of meetings between McNamara and the Presidents under whom he served, offering stark insight into the differences between the men. The film engages in a complex analysis of not only one of the most controversial architects of past US international military policy, but on our penchant for war and ability (or lack thereof) to learn from it. It’s at once riveting and revelatory, and should be seen by anyone interested in the workings of American and international politics.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations
Coming to theatres (as part of the International Documentary Association’s Oscar-qualifying DocuWeeks) this Friday, August 12 (NYC’s IFC Center) and next Friday, August 19 (LA’s Laemmle Sunset 5): UNFINISHED SPACES
Directors Alysa Nahmias and Ben Murray make their documentary feature debut with their exploration of Cuba’s National Art Schools utopian architectural project. The film had its world premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival this past June, and takes part in DocuWeeks this month to qualify for Oscar consideration.
The film tells the story of the schools from the perspectives of the architects who designed them. Conceived by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, the project was to be a symbol of the Cuban Revolution, a utopian space that would provide young artists, performers, and musicians with the best learning institution in the world to perfect their talents. Forced into construction prematurely, the architects tried to meet their mandate, but before the structures were completed, sentiments toward the project, and the individualistic visions of architects in general, shifted completely, with pre-fabricated, utilitarian Soviet style architecture coming to the fore instead. Funding cancelled, the buildings remained unfinished, though students made use of them anyway. Decades later, Castro invites the original architects to complete the project and save the dilapidated structures. Nahmias and Murray unearth a fascinating bit of architectural history set against the backdrop of the early years of the Cuban Revolution and its resultant bureaucracy. They make great use of archival footage from the period, showing a different side of Cuba than is normally seen, and beautifully showcasing what could have been had the political winds not shifted against the art schools.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to theatres (as part of the International Documentary Association’s Oscar-qualifying DocuWeeks) this Friday, August 12 (NYC’s IFC Center) and on Friday, August 26 (LA’s Laemmle Sunset 5): MISS REPRESENTATION
Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s look at how women and girls are objectified in mass media launched at Sundance this year and has swept through a number of other festivals in the intervening months, including San Francisco, Atlanta, Silverdocs, and Sonoma, where it won the audience award. The film has been picked up by OWN for Oprah’s Documentary Club.
I profiled the film before its world premiere here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Releases, Sundance
